During January and February 1998, Pres. Fernando Cardoso pressed ahead with his bid to push through constitutional reforms in the areas of social security (pensions) and government administration (civil service and state enterprises). In February the administrative reform won Senate approval (leaving regulatory matters to be dealt with), and the Chamber of Deputies approved the social security bill in the first-round vote (the bill having already been approved by the Senate). A favourable second-round vote was achieved at the beginning of June, but a number of opposition amendments were not completed prior to the elections, these going through only in early November.

By late March the prospect of a Cabinet reshuffle was evident, as ministers running for other offices had to resign by April 4, six months prior to the election date. On March 30 former planning minister José Serra, a close associate of the president and a cofounder of the Social Democratic Party (PSDB), was confirmed in the post of health minister. In early April the other main changes were announced, with Edward Amadeo becoming labour minister (succeeding Paulo Paiva, who took the planning portfolio) and new incumbents at agriculture, justice, industry, social security, and institutional reform. There was no change to the key post of finance minister, held by Pedro Malan, which was to prove important as global economic difficulties intensified.

Late in April two of Cardoso’s key political allies died: Communication Minister Sergio Motta and government Chief Whip Luís Eduardo Magalhaes. This unexpected development required Cardoso to take the lead in pushing through his reform agenda at a time close to the onset of his reelection campaign. The latter part of May and much of June registered some erosion of popular support for the president in the opinion polls, but by early July support for Cardoso was rebuilding. Through August and September he maintained the confidence of the electorate by adopting a pragmatic stance and demonstrating a firm commitment to dealing with economic problem areas, particularly the deficits on the public sector and current accounts.

On October 4 Cardoso was reelected with 53.1% of the valid votes, comfortably ahead of Luiz Inácio ("Lula") da Silva (31.7%), whereas Ciro Gomes, a former PSDB member running for the small Popular Socialist Party (PPS), finished third with almost 11%. In the 513-member Chamber of Deputies, the seats won by the main pro-government parties were as follows: Liberal Front Party (PFL), 105; PSDB, 99; Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB), 82; Progressive Renewal Party (PPB), 60; and Labour Party (PTB), 31. The leading left-of-centre opposition parties, the Workers’ Party (PT) and Democratic Labour Party (PDT), took 58 and 26 seats, respectively. In the 81-member Senate, the PMDB became the largest party, with 27 seats, followed by PFL with 20, PSDB with 16, and PT with 7. Most of the 27 contests for governor were won by candidates from parties in the pro-government alliance (including seven for the PSDB) with the opposition taking 6 overall.

The favourable results for Cardoso, as well as for the loose coalition of parties backing him, ran counter to the crisis environment that had intensified since July and that had brought the government into negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and creditors in an effort to avert a collapse of the real; this followed huge capital outflows in August and September that totaled approximately $30 billion, reducing reserves to about $52 billion and driving up interest rates to almost 50%. In order to obtain contingency financing from these sources, the government in late December enacted measures designed to raise $5.6 billion to help reduce the budget deficit.

It was agreed with the IMF that a budget surplus of 2.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) would be achieved in 1999, increasing to 2.8% in 2000 and 3% in 2001. For such targets to be viable, austerity measures totaling $84.5 billion over the three-year period were announced on October 28. While most of these were awaiting congressional approval, on November 13 the IMF and multilateral and bilateral creditors announced a standby loan totaling approximately $41.3 billion.

The economy showed only moderate growth of 1.22% in the first half of 1998 compared with the same period of 1997, and in the third quarter there was a decline of 0.14% from the corresponding period of the previous year as manufacturing industry contracted sharply (down 4.09%) and industry overall fell 2.06%. Annual GDP growth of about 0.5% appeared likely (after 3.7% in 1997).